Failure
by Kuroshi44
Summary: The Earl discovers an alternate universe without innocence and tries to turn it into an Akuma nursery. Fortunately the souls in this dimension have a much stronger protection network than the ones in his own, needless to say many people were rather unimpressed with his attempt. This is not meant to be taken seriously.
1. Chapter 1

The girl stared at the slab of concrete as it sat there. It looked so innocent for something that represented so much pain. She didn't know how they did it; summarize a person so brilliant and wonderful into just a few dates and words. Ciel Phantomhive had been more than a name, more than the squiggly lines caved into a plaque that was all that remained of such a bright light.

Elizabeth felt the tears start the same path down her cheeks as they had worn many times over the last few days. It wasn't fair. Ciel had been hers; God had no right to take him from her. This wasn't right; they were supposed to go together, not like this. Some part of her was glad that it had been peaceful, that he had slipped off in his sleep due to some sickness he had been keeping quiet about since he was a child.

But the majority of her just wanted to hold him in her arms again, just wanted to tell him all the things she hadn't had the courage to while he was alive, and now would never get the chance to.

The funeral had been earlier that day, it was currently midnight and she had taken a walk when sleep had continued to elude her as she was crushed by her grief. Now she sat alone on top of her Fiancé's grave and wondered what on earth she was going to do. There was nothing left for her any more.

'Do you want to bring your beloved back from that hateful God?' the voice was unfamiliar; looking up she saw what looked like some sorry excuse for a fat clown. Anger filled her, how dare this fool mock her; how dare he dress like that and ask stupid, impossible, questions to which the only possible response was yes.

Suddenly the whole world shifted and Elizabeth was left to wonder if she had fallen asleep out in the cold and was currently dreaming, that seemed like the only logical explanation to what was happening. A skeleton-like object was suspended in a frame with the strange, fat, fool, dancing around it.

'Hello! My name is the Earl of Millennium and this is a magical body that I created; insert a soul and it will be revived. Do you want to revive your precious Ciel, take him back from that hateful god? I can do it, with your help. You share a bond with him, a bond powerful enough to call him back from heaven, call his name and he shall be returned to you.'

Elizabeth sat between a grave and a metal skeleton. This was a dream, it had to be, but what a good dream it was to think that something as simple as calling for Ciel would bring him back to her. It was a dream, a dream of hope and a chance for the future that she had wanted since she had known what it meant to want. What harm was there in embracing that hope? What damage could a dream do?

Taking a deep breath she screamed his name.

And nothing happened.

The fat fool looked at her, looked at the skeleton, and pulled an incredibly confused face for someone that didn't stop smiling.

'I'm sorry, could you please try again?' Elizabeth did her best impression of her mother and screamed out a second time.

The world seemed to warp just slightly as if something from far away was yanking at it. The skeleton started to glow and for a second Elizabeth thought it had worked.

Then the skeleton exploded into dust.

Elizabeth stared at the skeleton and made a mental note not to trust strange clowns or wired dreams ever again as apparently they were more trouble than they were worth. Her new resolution was confirmed even more so as the fat fool fell to the ground and with tears pouring down his cheeks and shifted through the ashes.

'No! My precious Akuma! What did you do to it? how did this happen? Did I get the wrong person? What on earth is going on?' Elizabeth shuffled away from this incredibly unstable person. Suddenly the man stood as if nothing had happened.

'It would appear I failed.' And with that sentence he stood up and left, leaving an incredibly confused and annoyed Elizabeth in his wake to decide that maybe her bed, and sanity, were calling from inside the house.


	2. Chapter 2

The Earl sat on top of the roof of the building and tried to figure out all the reasons why his creation of the Akuma had gone so incredibly wrong. He had never suffered from performance issues before and the fact that his first Akuma in a new world had been a complete flop meant that his confidence had suffered a rather big blow.

His plan had been a good one, or so he had thought; he had found an alternate dimension and realised that it would have made a perfect Akuma nursery. He could go to the other world, create Akuma and allow them kill and level up undisturbed by innocence, and then flood his own dimension with his High level creations. Perfect.

Except the very first Akuma he had tried to make had rather literally turned to dust before his eyes. Now he was trying to figure out what had gone wrong and how to solve the issue; had the connection between the person and soul wasn't strong enough? Possible but unlikely, he had never miscalculated before. Perhaps his Akuma skeleton had been imperfect, but he created his little darlings with the utmost care, there was no way that he would allow for a fault large enough to result in such a failure. An option he didn't want consider was that nerves had affected his performance, but surely that was unlikely.

His train of thought was interrupted by the sound of someone clearing there throat from behind him. The Earl frown, people didn't see him, no one ever tried to get his attention, he was a phantom of nightmares, only noticed when he wanted to be.

Turning, with slight apprehension, he saw who it was that dared to interrupt his problem solving process.

The man was tall, thin, red eyed, black haired, dressed as a butler and, in the Earls esteemed opinion, the perfect example of what the human race should look like. The man spoke and his voice was perfection.

'Excuse me, I hate to be rude but, I don't suppose that are the person capable of recalling souls from heaven?' the Earl could feel himself getting all flustered, someone knew of him and his abilities.

'My name is the Earl of Millennium, and I have that ability, yes.'

The man smiled but for some reason it didn't put the Earl at ease, surprising considering how beautiful it was. 'I thought so, so you are the person who tried to recall the soul of Ciel Phantomhive just a few days ago.' The Earl frowned, the failure. 'You see, that particular soul is not in heaven, it belongs to me. I ate it, and when you tried to summon it, well, let's just say that indigestion is not something I am used to and certainly not something I wish to repeat. Instead I thought I would return to you the favour of a painful experience.' The man cracked his knuckles and the Earl felt a chill go down his spine.

What followed next was the Earls very first beating, he had been in fights before but for some reason the man, or whatever it was, seemed to make retaliation impossible so that all the Earl could do was get tossed around like a sack of flour. It was humiliating to be left on the ground covered in blood and unable to move while that red eyed creature stood over him with a smirk and his blood on his knuckles.

'What has been sacrificed can never be returned, not even by your power. Be careful from whom you try to take that which does not belong to you.' And with that the man walked off.

The Earl had leaned one good thing at least, he now had proof that his failure to perform rested entirely with the other party.


	3. Chapter 3

The Earl watched in frustration as another one of his darling Akuma collapse to the ground and combusted before it had managed to kill someone.

He had been careful after his … meeting … with the red eyed creature. These Akuma were selected with care rather than any random person who was being grieved for like in his own world. Slightly more work, but worth it if it avoided another confrontation like the previous one and allowed him to build up his arsenal.

Except he couldn't, for some reason within seconds of the Akuma having obtained its new skin it would just randomly die. He didn't understand it, what was going on? The longest one had lived was two days, and that wasn't enough time for an Akuma to evolve, he was lucky if they managed to kill even one person before their unnatural expiration.

He had been here a month; no new Akuma, the only things he had were injuries and a warning that he had received for his trouble.

He was beginning to wonder if he had missed something when he had found this world, what on earth had he failed to see that was capable of taking down Akuma with suck precision and effectiveness that it made innocence look like nothing more than a mild irritation in comparison when before it had been the only thing he considered a real threat to his plans?

 **DGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGMDGM**

'See, William, I told you it wasn't my fault! Even a soul that you collected personally has been stolen and corrupted! But to tell you the truth, I don't really mind. Just take me on a nice steamy date and I'll forget all about your groundless accusations.' Grell Sutcliff's voice rang across the street and William T. spears repressed a shudder. The woman knew nothing of subtlety and it grated on his nerves.

'I shall write you a formal letter of apology and compensation for your unjust punishment,' was the calm reply he gave.

'Oh, William, always so cold! But that's just what I like about.' William really could have done without the suggestive wink.

But it was still a mystery that needed solving, he was getting well and truly sick of the over time. Souls that the reapers swore up and down had been collected properly and stored correctly would suddenly vanish from containment just a few hours (and on way occasion the next day) later. The soul would very quickly reappear, however, as the cause of death for someone that hadn't been on the to-die list until just moments earlier. The soul would be chained to some metal skeleton and screaming in agony and only stopped once they had been recollected with the death scythe.

It was infuriating to watch someone mess with the souls of the dead in such a manner, even more annoying was the over time. They didn't have enough personnel to collect nearly every soul twice, something had to be done.

'Perhaps I can be of some assistance?' Grell started gushing and William swung his death scythe threateningly at the voice. He hated demons, ones without collars especially. 'Now, now, no need for that, I am not trying to steel any souls and I don't intend to cause trouble, I was just offering a rather beneficial deal is all.'

'Beneficial for whom?' William asked scathingly.

That smug smile, 'you of course; I have information on the perpetrator, the thief of the missing souls. I can give you a name and description, surely that would be of some help in your investigation? I wouldn't ask for much in return.'

William hesitated, 'What exactly do you want?'

'Nothing much,' he looked like a cat that had the cream, 'Just for you to look the other way when I obtain the soul of a single person outside of contract. You give me the soul of Elizabeth Midford and I tell you all the information I have.'

William hesitate for only a second, just this once he could bend the rules, the paper work for a single missing soul was nothing compared to the truck load he had now.

'Fine, what is it you know?'


	4. Chapter 4

**One of the Noah turning up temporarily to say that they can't possess people because these ones don't have quite the same Noah Genes, the only one to succeed was removed and kidnapped soon after (the reapers collected the Noah soul)**

The Earl was getting rather concerned, one of the reasons that he hadn't just gone back to his own dimension yet was that he had agreed to meet the rest of his family _here_. Except that they were very late. Nearly three months he had spent in this world where it was impossible to create Akuma so that he could tell them all that it was no use and they should just go home, but they didn't turn up so he was required to stay and wait. It shouldn't have been taking so long; all they had to do was change bodies or use the portal he had shown them how to create.

Finally he heard the faint whisper in his mind of Wisely making contact. The transmission was short and terrifying.

 _Sorry, Earl, we can't get into that dimension. We tried several times and every time we failed, the Noah memory cannot possess them because they do not possess the genes of Noah. We tried the portal you showed us, brilliant by the way, but when Mercym went through it looked like he was attacked. Where not sure what happened exactly but when we pulled him back through the Noah memory was gone and he was just an ordinary, living human._

 _After all this we decided that it would be best if we waited for you back home, good luck and sorry we couldn't help, I am returning so that hopefully I don't meet the same fate as Mercym._

 _If you find him by the way can you bring him back? As far as we can tell the soul itself has been kidnapped rather than destroyed or simply released by the death of the body._

The transmission cut out and the Earl was left all along in the world once again.

What on earth was he to do now?

On the other side of life and death the reapers were celebrating their capture of the soul that they had found piggybacking in someone else's body, it would make a wonderful hostage.


	5. Chapter 5

Komui looked at the reports and paper work on his desk and felt an uneasy tingle run down his spine. What was the Earl up to? The first Noah had been suspiciously silent these last few months and everyone was on egg shells wondering what was going on. After years of relentless attacks with no breathing room the Noah's activity had started to decrease. Hordes of Akuma were getting few and far between, no longer did they attack in mass and those that were destroyed did not seem to get replaced quiet as quickly, if at all.

He was just staring at the almost alarmingly bare desk when Reever walked in with an almost panicked look on his face. Komui felt his stomach tighten; this was it, finally the Noah were making their move to finish them off once and for all.

'We found something, or Johnny did, in those random experiments that we were doing since for once we actually have time to mess around. Well, you know how some of the others were joking around about discovering a different dimension without the Earl in it and jumping ship? Well, dimension exists alright, but it seems like someone else already opened a portal through to it.' Komui felt his blood run cold, he had a horrible suspicion of where this was going. 'The time the portal was first opened matches up with when the Earl suddenly started getting quiet.'

Komui felt his head fall onto the desk with a resounding thwack. Not only did they fail to stop the earl in their own universe but now they had let him loose on some poor, innocent one.

'What's this world like, and why would he have gone there?' Komui's voice was muffled by the wooden desk.

Reever hesitated for only a few seconds. 'It's almost identical to ours, but it doesn't have Innocence to destroy the Akuma that he makes.' If Komui had been cold before it was nothing to how he felt now.

'With nothing to stop him, he could have created an army and watched as they erased that world and evolved before returning them here. Who knows what level these Akuma could reach in an environment like that? If that's where he's been the last few months … forget that destruction he would have caused those uninvolved people, if he succeeded there would be nothing we could do to stop him.'

There was silence as the horror of the situation sunk in, then they both plunged head first into action.

'Go and inform Central about this, make sure they understand the severity of the situation. While you do that I will try and get a team of exorcists together to infiltrate this other world and see what they can do about halting the Earls plans. Get Central to sign the permission papers immediately and we will send them as soon as humanly possible. Before you leave get Johnny to double and triple check that the portal is stable and we can retrieve those we send over.' Komui said everything in the calm and collected voice he used only when things were really serious and he was panicking inside and trying not to show it.

It was the fastest any one had ever seen HQ move as it organised the mission, in only a matter of hours the Orders top team was assembled and heading off through the portal.

No one was quite sure what they had expected to find; a world in ruin maybe? Masses of high level Akuma floating through the air without a care in the world? A silent world that had already been hollowed out and left to finish rotting?

Instead they saw … peace. The world looked like nothing was wrong and there was no sign of Akuma any were.

And then they saw the Earl, he was racing towards them at top speed and his face was absolutely frightening. All of them found themselves readying there weapons, all of them found them unnecessary. The man through his arms around there necks with tears in his eyes.

'Please just take me home!' the teary fat man cried in the desperate voice of a lost child. 'This place is horrible! It's so mean! Why? Why did I come here? I thought it would be so easy to take over this world without innocence but all the souls hear are actually protected! There are people and they actually come and reclaim the souls after I take them! And people who eat them! I hate it here. Take me home and I'll never try and pull this kind of stunt ever again!'

And on and on the fat man went as the tears poured down his face to the point where the exorcists wondered if he was trying to drown them.

Needless to say they left that world rather quickly to report to HQ, taking the previously Great Earl of Millennium with them.


	6. Chapter 6

The Central official looked really nervous as he sat in the waiting room. This was bizarre; he was in another dimension, looking through something called a magazine, in the waiting room of death. Well, the last part wasn't entirely accurate; it wasn't like he was about to meet a skeleton in a dark clock who was responsible for judging the outcome of souls. No, he was just going to meet the head of the dispatch division of the grim reaper organisation.

Nothing to worry about.

Central had been intrigued by the report of the returning Exorcists; the claim that a world without innocence had been able to halt the Earl in a way that they could not. There excitement could not be contained about the possibility of another weapon that could bring such devastation to the horrible monsters. A few issues had been raised about the difficulty of obtaining the weapon, after all they were sifting things around in two separate universes, but the eventual decision was that it was fine if it was for the greater good.

So the traumatised Earl had been hurriedly interrogated before the rest of the Noah had come to collect him. He had revealed that in the other world there seemed to be another Organisation, a slightly better organised one, which had turned up and destroyed his Akuma almost as soon as they had been created. After a bit of research in the opposite dimension they had discovered that this other organisation apparently called themselves "Grim Reapers" and had used the information to obtain a meeting with one of the heads of department.

Finally the pretty receptionist informed him that Mr Spears would see him and he wiped the sweat from his brow as he entered the room.

Mr Spears was rather unassuming as he sat in his chair with his glasses and his strange device; but from the Earls gibbering he was not to be underestimated.

'Hello, my name is –'

'I do not care, we are not interested, and we have enough work as it.'

'Um, I'm sorry, what?'

'We have no intension what so ever in helping you get rid of the big fatty, we have our own jobs and enough over time as it is.' The man growled from behind his desk.

'Doing what?' the poor Central official asked, he was genuinely curious. In all the investigations they had never found the reason for the organisation, only its name and that they were the ones that disposed of the Akuma.

'Collecting the souls of the dead. Now that the Earl of Phantomhive is no longer cleaning them up the criminals of England are starting to get even more daring, it's horrible for the work load. Every night we have stabbings, robberies gone wrong and that's not even counting the accidents and diseases in the slums. We're run off of our feet and don't have time to go gallivanting over to a different universe just to save them. If we were meant to save your world you would have a version of us already, probably do you just won't know it until your time comes.'

'So, you refuse to save hundreds of lives just because you don't want to deal with the paper work?'

'Not our world, not our problem. Besides, we don't save lives, we take them. We are grim reapers, the chaos that would result of us leaving this world unattended would probably destroy all the hard work I have done up until now. If your God wanted the Grim Reapers of your world to destroy the Akuma he would have had them do so by now.

'Good day to you, please leave.'

The Central official blinked. 'Are you … kicking me out?'

'Yes, I am very busy and don't have time to waste on your nonsense.'

'It's not nonsense! Lives are at stake.'

'Would you rather not leave?' suddenly the pointy end of the strange device was lying against his throat. 'I could collect you early, I'm sure no one would mind since you're not from here.'

The Central official swallowed, 'um, alright, goodbye.' Suddenly he didn't care that a failure would result in a demotion; this job was not worth his life.

As the man left through the portal Ronald threw the hostage soul in after him, maybe now he would have enough free time to take the receptionist on the best date of her life.

Honour and glory of saving a different universe just wasn't worth the over time, no matter what anyone said.


End file.
